News

Portola Valley: Eight households win habitat award

by
Dave Boyce / Almanac

Portola Valley's Conservation Committee named the yard of Geoff Nuttall and Livia Sohn and seven other yards in town as winners of the 2015 Backyard Habitat award to recognize efforts to provide a welcome to native plants and animals. (Photo by Donald Eckstrom)

On the Portola Valley property of Geoff Nuttall and Livia Sohn, milkweed now grows and larvae of the Monarch butterfly feed in the general vicinity of what were once a lawn, a swimming pool, a garage, a driveway and a cottage.

Chickadees nest there. Bees have set up colonies of larvae. Pest management is left to the plants and animals, while irrigation is done by hand.

That description was provided in writing by the town's Conservation Committee, along with equally complimentary descriptions of the properties of seven other Portola Valley households. All are winners of the 2015 Backyard Habitat award.

The winners receive a 3-foot-long, 4-inch-wide rusted steel plaque engraved with the name of the program and topped by a silhouette of an oak tree. The plaque can be tacked to a fence post indicating to passersby the presence of a welcoming habitat for native creatures.

The Conservation Committee has a backlog of households wanting to apply for the award, but are waiting for rain to reinvigorate their land, committee member Marge DeStaebler said.

"All of these recipients are preserving a gift for the future generations of Portola Valley, open space, which will be enjoyed also by insects, butterflies, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals that can live and flourish here," she said.

Mr. Prince removed his lawn, let native grasses grow and cut invasive grasses before they could seed, Ms. DeStaebler said. Foxes, rabbits, bobcats and coyotes enjoy the area near the seasonal creek, she said.

The Lipmans removed some 75 Monterey pines, as well as other invasive trees, ground cover and lawn, she said.

Ms. Rothrock got rid of at least one huge eucalyptus and other non-natives and replaced them with California natives, Ms. DeStaebler said.

Posted by Nancy Reyering
a resident of Woodside: Mountain Home Road
on Jan 12, 2016 at 3:50 pm

Big congratulations to the award winners, and to Portola Valley's wonderful Conservation Committee. The article doesn't mention that this program in PV is an offshoot of Woodside's Backyard Habitat Program, and the result of warm collaboration between the respective parties. Woodside's BYHP was the brainchild of council member Peter Mason's wife Virginia Dare, a longtime active member of Woodside's Open Space Committee. Fellow committee members Julie White and myself helped bring the program to fruition, and Woodside now has over 50 award winners.